of the great gifts and blessings you enjoy; and we all of us
feel, most rightly and properly, that we belong to the
greatest nation that has ever existed on this earth--a
feeling I like to see, for I wish every American always to
keep the most intense pride in his country, and people. But
as you already know your rights and privileges so well, I am
going to ask you to excuse me if I say a few words to you
about your duties. Much has been given to us, and so, much
will be expected of us; and we must take heed to use aright
the gifts entrusted to our care.

The Declaration of Independence derived its peculiar
importance, not on account of what America was, but because
of what she was to become; she shared with other nations the
present, and she yielded to them the past, but it was felt
in return that to her, and to her especially, belonged the
future. It is the same with us here. We, grangers and
cowboys alike, have opened a new land; and we are the
pioneers, and as we shape the course of the stream near its
head, our efforts have infinitely more effect, in bending it
in any given direction, than they would have if they were
made farther along. In other words, the first comers in a
land can, by their individual efforts, do far more to
channel out the course in which its history is to run than
can those who come after them; and their labors, whether
exercised on the side of evil or on the side of good, are
far more effective than if they had remained in old settled
communities.

So it is peculiarly incumbent on us here to-day so to act
throughout our lives as to leave our children a heritage,
for which we will receive their blessing and not their
curse.

Stickney, sitting on the platform as presiding officer, was struck by
the contrast which Roosevelt offered to the man who had preceded him.
The first speaker had been "eloquent" in the accepted meaning of the
word; Roosevelt was not consciously eloquent at all. He talked as he
always talked, simply, directly, earnestly, emphatically.

We have rights [he went on], but we have correlative duties;
none can escape them. We only have the right to live on as
free men, governing our own lives as we will, so long as we
show ourselves worthy of the privileges we enjoy. We must
remember that the Repub